E-Commerce Times Talkback

Though outsourcing continues to be a hot-button issue in the United States, that is not deterring major U.S.-based companies from increasing their offshoring drive, particularly to India. Following IBM's sensational acquisition of India's Daksh e-services two weeks ago, American consultancy and technology services companies are trying to leapfrog rivals by snapping up existing back-office companies in India to keep up with offshoring, rather than building their own operations from start.

As major firms buy up capacity in Indian operations to support BPO opportunities, I question if there is there anything aside from pure cost that is driving this? Because the companies can get something done for under $2 an hour, does that make it a good business decision for anyone? And if that is what drives us, why are we not just coming right out and officially enslaving the populations of these countries?Further, as a consumer, why would I want to do business with any company that sends my information outside of the United States where I have privacy protection & recourse? Is IBM taking responsibility as an entire entity for this work? I doubt it -- check out their agreements. Whenever work is done in a different country, the operations in that other country are performed by a seperate legal entity which is a subcontractor to IBM US. Why? The answer is simple -- the government regulations are different for each country and so they have to be seperate firms. Therefore, when the work is done outside the United States, regulations concerning HIPPA,GLBA, Sarbanes, or any other US regulations do not apply.Until we have a global set of regulations, I think we must be very careful about what business processes are sent outside the borders & along with that, what information is released to what appears to be a US firm that actually is not bound by our laws.Ross EmertonTellangon Associates, Ltd.